Arm. I fay, lead is flow.

Moth. You are too fwift, Sir, to fay fo.

Is that lead flow, Sir, which is fired from a gun?
Arm. Sweet fmoak of rhetorick?

He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he:
I fhoot thee at the fwain.

Moth. Thump then, and I fly.

[Exit. Arm. A moft acute Juvenile, voluble and free of grace; By thy favour, fweet welkin, I must figh in thy face. Moft rude melancholy, valour gives thee place. My herald is return'd.

Re-enter Moth and Coftard.

Moth. A wonder, mafter, here's a Coftard broken in a fhin Arm. Someenigma, fome riddle; come, thy l'envoy begin. Coft. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no falve in the male, Sir. O Sir, plantan, a plain plantan; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, or falve, Sir, but plantan.

Arm. By virtue, thou enforceft laughter; thy filly thought, my fpleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous fmiling: O pardon me, my ftars; doth the inconfiderate take falve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for a falve?

Moth. Doth the wife think them other? is not l'envoy a falve?

Arm. No, page, it is an epilogue or difcourfe, to make plain

Some obfcure precedence that hath tofore been fain. I will example it. Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy.

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,

Were still at odds, being but three.

There's the moral, now the l'envoy.

Moth. I will add the l'envoy; fays the moral again. Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble bee,

Were ftill at odds, being but three.

Moth. Until the goofe came out of door,

And stay'd the odds by adding four.

A good l'envoy, ending in the goofe; would you de

fire more?

Coft. The boy hath fold him a bargain; a goofe that's

Aat;

Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goofe be fat. To fell a bargain well is as cunning as fait and loofe. Let me fee a fat l'envoy; I, that's a fat goofe.

Arm. Come hither, come hi her;

How did this argument begin?

Moth. By faying, that a Cotard was broken in a shin. Then call'd you for a l'envoy.

Coft. True, and I for a plantan;

Thus came the argument in ;

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goofe that you bought, And he ended the market.

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Coftard broken. in a fhin?

Moth. I will tell you fenfibly.

Coft. Thou haft no feeling of it, Moth,
I will speak that l'envoy.

I Coftard running out, that was fafely within,
Fell over the threshold, and broke my fhin.
Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Coft. Till there be more matter in the fhin.
Arm. Sirrah, Coftard, I will infranchise thee.
Coft. O, marry me to one Francis; I smell some l'en-
voy, fome goofe in this.

Arm. By my fweet foul, I mean, fetting thee at liberty; enfreedoming thy perfon; thou wert immur'd, reftrained, captivated, bound.

Coft. True, true, and now you will be my purgation, and let me loofe.

Arm. I give thee thy liberty, fet thee from durance, and in lieu thereof impofe on thee nothing but this; bear this fignificant to the country-maid Jaquenetta; there is remuneration; for the best ward of mine honours is rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow.

[Exit..

Moth. Like the fequel, I. Signior Coftard, adieu..

[Exit. Coft. My fweet ounce of man's flesh, my in-cony Jew! Now will I look to his remuneration. Remune15

ration!

ration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings remuneration: What's the price of this incle a penny. No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it. Remuneration!—why, it is a fairer name than a French crown (16). I will never buy and fell out of this word.

Enter Biron.

Biron. O my good knave Coftard, exceedingly well met. Coft. Pray you, Sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration ?

Biron. What is a remuneration ?

Coft. Marry, Sir, half-penny farthing.

Biron. O, why then three farthings worth of filk.
Coft. I thank your worship, God be with you.
Biron. O ftay, flave, I muft employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, my good knave,
Do one thing for me that I fhall intreat.

Coft. When would you have it done, Sir?
Biron. O, this afternoon.

Coft. Well, I will do it, Sir: fare you well.
Biron. O, thou knoweft not what it is.

Coft. I fhall know, Sir, when I have done it.
Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.
Coft. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.
Biron. It must be done this afternoon.

Hark, flave, it is but this:

The Princefs comes to hunt here in the park:
And in her train there is a gentle Lady;

When tongues fpeak fweetly, then they name her name,
And Rofaline they call her; afk for her,

And to her fweet hand fee thou do commend
This feal'd up counfel. There's thy guerdon; go.
Coft. Guerdon,-
O fweet guerdon! better than re-
muneration, eleven pence farthing better: moft fweet

(16) No, I'll give you a remuneration: why? it carries its remune ration. Why? it is a fairer name than a French-crown.] Thus this paffage has hitherto been writ, and pointed, without any regard to common fenfe, or meaning. The reform, that I have made, flight as it is, makes it both intelligible and humorous.

guerdon!

guerdon! I will do it, Sir, in print. Guerdon, remuneration.

Biron. O! and I, forfooth, in love!

I, that have been love's whip;
A very beadle to a humorous figh:
A critick; nay, a night-watch constable,
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,

Than whom no mortal more magnificent.

[Exit.

This whimpled, whining, purblind wayward boy,
This Signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid, (17)
Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed Sovereign of fighs and groans:
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents:
Dread Prince of plackets, King of codpieces:
Sole Imperator, and great General

Of trotting parators. (O my little heart!)

(17) This Signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid.] It was fome time ago ingeniously hinted to me, (and I readily came into the opinion;) that as there was a contraft of terms in giant-dwarf, fo, probably, there fhould be in the words immediately preceding them; and therefore that we should reftore,

This Senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid.

i. e. this old, young man. And there is, indeed, afterwards in this play, a defcription of Cupid, which forts very aptly with fuch an emen

dation.

That was the way to make his godhead wax,

For be bath been five thousand years a boy.

The conjecture is exquifitely well imagin'd, and ought by all means to be embrac'd, unless there is reafon to think, that, in the former reading, there is an allufion to fome tale, or character in an old play. I have not, on this account, ventur'd to difturb the text, because there feems to me some reason to fufpect, that our author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that tragedy there is the character of one Junius, a Roman captain, who falls in love to diffraction with one of Bonduca's daughters; and becomes an arr..nt whining flave to this paffion. He is afterwards cur'd of his infirmity, and is as abfolute a tyrant against the fex. Now, with regard to thefe two extremes, Cupid might very properly be filed Junius's giant-dwarf: a giant in his eye, while the dotage was upon him; but shrunk into a dwarf, fo foon as he had got the better of it. Our poet writing the name with the Italian termination, and calling him Signior Junio, would, I think, be an objection of little weight to urge, that the Roman captain could not therefore be meant.

And

And I to be a corporal of his file, (18)
And wear his colours! like a tumbler, ftoop!
What? I love! I fue! I feek a wife!
A woman that is like a German clock,
Still a repairing; ever out of frame,
And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch'd, that it may ftill go right!
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all:
And among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls ftuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and by heav'n, one that will do the deed,
Tho' Argus were her eunuch and her guard;
And I to figh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! go to:It is a plague,
That Cupid will impofe for my neglect
Of his almighty, dreadful, little, might.
Well, I will love, write, figh, pray, fue and groan:
Some men muft love my Lady, and fome Joan. [Exit.

(18) And I to be a coporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop !]

A corporal of a field is quite a new term: neither did the tumblers ever adorn their boops with ribbands, that I can learn: for those were not carried in parade about with them, as the fencer carries his fword: Nor, if they were, is the fimilitude at all pertinent to the cafe in hand. But to floop like a tumbler agrees not only with that profeffion, and the fervile condefcenfions of a lover, but with what follows in the context. What milled the wife tranfcribers at firft, feems this: When once the tumbler appear'd, they thought, his boop must not be far behind. Mr. Warburton

ACT